kansaswiderack

do you need to break in a 17 cal like you would a big bore?

Sfury

All firearms require so many rounds to go through them to break them in. How many depends on the individual firearm.

My guess is, you won't need to put too many rounds through a .17 HMR before it's good to go.

scottycoyote

if you mean a break in process, ive always heard and read that the rimfires didnt need it. In fact more and more im reading you almost shouldnt even be cleaning your rimfire barrels, at least not like you do your large bores, but who knows

Sheridan

Kansas,

I do !

I think the question is, do you ?

Nomercy448

Not to just poke the bear, I'd tend to disagree, or even believe the opposite to be true.

By breaking in a barrel, we're essentially lapping the bore, which smooths out roughness, and orients the grain structure of the metal together to produce a regular grain structure along the bore.

To lap the bore, the bullet will need speed and pressure.

The .17 HMR cooks around 2500fps, and runs 25kpsi, which is slower than most modern centerfire rifle cartridges, and CONSIDERABLY lower pressure. Compared to a .22lr or .22WMR, the .17 HMR might break in faster, but I don't necessarily predict they'd polish up a bore faster than a faster, higher pressure centerfire round.

Granted, I've only broken in 2 .17HMR's, but honestly, I use a fixed break in procedure anyway, and don't do any measurement except for accuracy checks along the way (not like I'm X-raying the barrel, or using a microscopic borescope after every shot), so it's not like breaking in goes any faster for me using one round or another, but I do know all of my barrels clean up quickly, shoot pretty dang straight, and sure do shine when I stick a borelight in them!

Sheridan

You might find this helpful................

http://www.larrywillis.com/Barrel.html


Still I leave it up to you - it's your gun !?!?

HatchieLuvr

I wonder how our fathers, grandfathers and even great-grandfathers killed anything since they just bought their old rifles and went out and shot em? If it rained or was dusty they MIGHT run a patch through them ever now and then.

Sometimes I think this whole "barrel breakin in/cookin" is sometimes over emphasized and if perhaps we are being sold snake oil? If anything, IMHO with todays tooling and metallurgy technology our barrels are better today then the best, hand tuned target rifles of yesteryear. Now perhaps it we're talking about edging out the competition at Camp Perry then yeah perhaps alot of worry and time might warrant itself. But for a hunting gun that is already capable of out shooting 80% of the public that will buy them today, I think just using the basics (quality ammo, a patch before and after each use and IMHO most importantly... NOT overheating the barrel and taking your time) will suffice for most meat guns.


HL

Sfury

We really aren't breaking in the barrels today as much as we were in years past. I was breaking in the action on my X-Bolt more than the barrel itself. My action was a little rough to work at first. After I went through the break in process, it moves completely freely now.

My CZ-452 on the other hand was good to go from the start. I can't tell a difference in the way it shoots/handles now from the first time I took it out of the box and fired it.

Colorado Luckydog

I'm starting to like this guy!

X-2

Nomercy448

Maybe we should all be driving Ford Model T's also?

Frankly, I STRONGLY disagree with this perception in general. Maybe your father, grandfather, and great grandfathers were lazy, but mine indeed did teach me to break in my rifles. All 3 my father, grandfather, and great grandfather were there when my dad gave me my first new rifle, a Ruger M-77 .30-06 when I was 14, and all 4 of us walked through breaking it in that afternoon. My patriarchs even insisted it wasn't even worth trying to sight it in along the way until it was thoroughly broken in.

Heck, barrel break in procedures were widespread long before metallic cartridges were even available. Blackpowder shooters, like my great grandfather whom I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time with as a youth before he passed, used a very detailed break in procedure for his rifles, although he called it "seasoning" instead of "breaking in". The first 10-20 shots out of a black powder rifle shooting a patched ball will even SOUND differently than the shots after say 50rnds. Cap and ball pistols will sound like a loud "poof" initially, until the barrel gets broken in and fouled properly to seal the balls, then they'll switch to a distinct "cracking" sound we're all familiar with.

My great grandpa also taught me to clean my rifle after every time I shoot it, hunting season or not. Granted, he was a smokepoler, so he said to take the stock off and soak it in hot soapy water, then clean it with brake cleaner, then oil it, but the philosophy was the same, "you shoot it, you clean it" (which was his quote for both rifles AND game).

Frankly, I have noticed from experience that cleaning is much faster for broken in barrels, and yes, they do tend to be more accurate, AND STAY ACCURATE LONGER than barrels that weren't broken in.

That's probably the biggest difference for me. The cleaning process is SHORTER and easier with properly broken in rifles, and the barrels DO last longer before the throat and/or crown erode enough to start effecting accuracy.

All that said, it doesn't take a very accurate rifle to kill a deer at 100-200yrds. A 4" group at the given range will knock down any deer your grandpappy might have shot at. These days, we have a little higher standards for accuracy and a little longer expectation on huntable range... Hunting deer at 100yrds doesn't take much precision, so the old timers didn't have very high standards in general.